Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira says that Wilfried Zaha is still passionate about playing for the Ivory Coast despite the country's head coach Patrice Beaumelle suggesting the winger might hang up his international boots.
Zaha made his debut for the Elephants in 2017 and has played for the country 21 times, though was left out of their latest 25-man squad for the upcoming 2022 World Cup qualifiers against Cameroon and Mozambique.
Beaumelle said the reason for Zaha's absence was that the winger had requested he not be selected because he wanted to reflect on his international future, with the manager later saying he only wanted "soldiers" and "warriors" in his squad.
Vieira, speaking to the media ahead of Crystal Palace's Premier League clash with Wolves on Saturday, said that Zaha was still very much open to representing Ivory Coast in the future and that he was passionate about playing on the international stage.
"Wilfried still wants and still hopes to go to international," said the Palace boss.
"He made it clear to myself, talking to him, about how much he loves playing for the Ivory Coast national team, how proud it will be for him to be the World Cup with Ivory Coast.
"He still wants to go to the international stage, so I was quite surprised to see all these comments coming out in the last couple of days."
Ivory Coast will be competing in the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations in January and February, which, if Zaha is included in the squad, would keep him away from Palace for more than a month.
Despite that Vieira said the winger had the club's full backing if he is called up by Beaumelle for the tournament.
"What I know is that he still wants to go to international, so we will support and I will support him," added the Frenchman. "It's up to the manager to make the decision about who he will call."
Zaha is expected to be in action for Palace tomorrow when they take on Wolves at Selhurst Park. In his press conference, Vieira said the Eagles had no fresh injury concerns, with Eberechi Eze still unavailable for selection.
